Is Insurance Sexy?

It's just a rhetorical question - of course insurance is sexy. But just how sexy is it? Very, according to Sean Bourgeois, the founder of Sexy Insurance, which he characterizes as "the world's first international social networking site for the sexiest industry on the planet." Perhaps sensing that it's also the most cheapskate industry on the planet, Bourgeois' blurb adds, "100% free. Put away your credit card." What makes insurance so sexy, according to Bourgeois is that "it's a big industry, it has lots of money and the financial centers it operates out of are pretty sexy-London, New York, Bermuda."He left out Hartford, Des Moines and Omaha, but you get the picture. Speaking of Omaha, if you scroll down at the Sexy Insurance homepage you'll see a portrait of Warren Buffett with a thought balloon saying, "I'm so sexy it hurts." Bourgeois could have left out the words because, frankly, it's written all over Warren's face. Who can deny it? If Henry Kissinger is sexy, Warren Buffett is doubly so. What the site needs is a picture of Hank Greenberg saying, "I'm so sexy it hurts Eliot Spitzer."

As Bourgeois emphasizes, insurance's sexiness is of an understated kind. Other industries, such as Hollywood and professional sports, clearly have more superficial sexiness. In all fairness, I&T is not likely to publish a swimsuit Elite 8 issue any time soon, as attractive as many of our honorees undoubtedly are.

The point of the site, after all, is for those who know that they belong to the sexiest industry on the planet to interact. Social networking, if it makes sense at all, makes sense for just about any industry. However, it may make more sense for insurance than other industries, Bourgeois suggests. "Insurance is a very sociable industry and its interactions are often informal," he says. "One of the purposes of the site is to help facilitate those interactions."

Though Sexy Insurance is open to anybody in the insurance industry, Bourgeois thinks that the site may have even more appeal for insurance technology executives. "Being tech savvy to begin with, I'd hope they appreciate the site," he notes. "They are probably well versed with Web 2.0 and what social networking is about."

That may be a rash assumption, given the stunned reaction of attendees at I&T's Executive Summit to keynote speaker Todd Masonis, founder of Plaxo. However, maybe insurance technology people are ready to adopt a social networking site that deals with their professional realm. Social networking gives participants an opportunity to share "war stories," as Bourgeois' site suggests, and getting to know a lot of people can be good for one's career. The site has only been up for a couple of weeks and some guy in Georgia has already managed to find a job through interacting with another member.

Having been raised by Scottish parents, I found the membership fees of Sexy Insurance consistent with my family values. I've gone ahead and joined up (I'm the guy holding the big fish), making Sexy Insurance even sexier than it was yesterday.At the Sexy Insurance homepage you'll see a portrait of Warren Buffet with a thought balloon saying, "I'm so sexy it hurts." Bourgeois could have left out the words because, frankly, it's written all over Warren's face. Who can deny it? If Henry Kissinger is sexy, Warren Buffet is doubly so. What the site needs is a picture of Hank Greenberg saying, "I'm so sexy it hurts Eliot Spitzer."

Anthony O'Donnell has covered technology in the insurance industry since 2000, when he joined the editorial staff of Insurance & Technology. As an editor and reporter for I&T and the InformationWeek Financial Services of TechWeb he has written on all areas of information ... View Full Bio